You roll the little cart into the classroom, it's just the right size to fit under the standard black tables in there, plug a power strip cord into an outlet, lift the display mouse and keyboard onto the table, and start working.

Add the step of plugging in a network cable , or installing an internal wireless card.

Riley

You may wish to look here, a ton of computer carts are on auction, bit of a drive to retrieve them, but they look to be in nice shape, some seem to be setup for CRTs vs. LCDs.

The wiki has the most recent information on which computers are working and their specs. There have been some additional donations since we completed this project that need to be checked, tagged, and documented.

The PXE/TFTP server exists and as of last time I checked, was working. The next step for all of this was to get the 4u in the networking room (the small room next to the classroom) setup as a server w/ Apache, MySQL, PHP, FTP, tftp, pxe, dhcp, DNS, squid, ldap, and some kind of repository mirror for the administration of the computers. The existing pxe server only has Ubuntu lucid 32 bit on it. The new pseud server should have 32 and 64 bit versions of a handful of distros and several custom distros that have common hackerspace tools preinstalled (programming, cnc, cad/cam, etc)

Also, an IP lab is slated to be setup, so some consideration should go into collaboration and integration.

First, Pete if only we knew somebody with a mig welder to modify those cards... I bet we could find one on CL....

Second, Smittex thanks you for the update, I will talk with Chris ASAP to get the spot picked out and start building the dust box for the CPU, we can then get together (virtual or FTF) and finish up the details.

I should also be able to get another couple systems for the Metal shop and where ever else we may want to have a "disposable and semi durable" thin client.

I also have two, maybe three of these IBM all in one units that would be good to have set up for general use or maybe just rotate them into the classroom, I believe they are basic P4, and we have Ubuntu 10.04 running on one already.

All-in-one units would be great for the classroom, they're very easy to shuffle around the room.

Good to know we've got a PXE server going. I'll cross that one off my list. I'd like to get a NAS going (I was thinking Openfiler), and get the CNC machines connected to the network. That way people can create files and store them on the NAS, and the CNCs can pick them up.

Back on topic for the PCs and their carts. Here is a very rough design I was thinking about that would be a straight forward build. The advantages would be its versitility, the ease of mobility, and the small foot print when stored. I like it also because it is a simple platform that is open to improvements/additions/embelishments/etc.